cp24.com

Toronto radio listeners will no longer hear certain familiar voices on the airwaves after a firing drive at Ryerson's community radio station.

DJ Denise Benson, a Toronto club scene institution, is one of more than 30 longtime station volunteers who have been relieved of their duties.

According to a post on her Facebook page, Benson was served with a notice saying "please be advised that your volunteer services at CKLN Radio Inc. are no longer required effective immediately."

Benson had been the host of a show called Mental Chatter and volunteered at the station for 21 years.

Others booted from the station include DJs Nik Red of Afrotransit, Francis Yee Loy (DJ San Fran), Mano Narayanan (DJ Dialect) and Cheldon Paterson (DJ Vision), according to a group protesting the firings called "Take Back our Radio Station."

The group is accusing the station's current management and board of trying to eliminate "LGBT, racialized, First Nations, and psychiatric survivor voices... from the airwaves."

News director Kristin Schwartz was also fired earlier this month, just weeks after returning from maternity leave.

"After 10 years of service to CKLN, and only six weeks after returning from a year-long parental leave, I was told that the current board of directors and I 'do not see eye to eye'. For that reason I was terminated, effective immediately," she says.

The station's leadership has said little on the terminations, except that the station is heading in a new direction.

According to CKLN's website, the board consists of:

• Mike Phillips - Interim Station Manager
• Tony Barnes - Interim Program Director
• Josie Miner - Community Representative
• Douglas King - Community Representative
• Doug Barrett - Volunteer/staff Representative
• Rebecca Tucker - Student Representative
• Peter Toh - Student Representative
• Alex Narvaez - Student Representative
• Irene Quarcoo - Student Representative